Social Media Room - Part 5: Furnishing Your Facebook Page To Set Up Sales

Furniture World News

By Furniture World Magazine on
10/25/2013

Photo caption: When done correctly, a Facebook business fan page can be a valuable marketing and publicity tool that complements, rather than competes with, a company’s website.

By Mary Lou Denny, Executive Vice President Walt Denny Inc.

Does your furniture store or home furnishings brand have a Facebook page? If you answered “Yes” then you’re one of 4,000,000+ businesses with Facebook company pages, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s letter to investors during the company’s recent IPO.

If not, you should know that a Facebook company fan page is a valuable marketing and publicity tool. It’s a great way for your business to appear approachable and friendly, while also reaching out to a wider audience. When a person “likes” a company’s status updates or becomes a fan of the page, it can be displayed to all of that person’s friends, their friends’ friends, leading to exponential online exposure.

The key to success with a Facebook business fan page is to set it up and manage it so that it complements, rather than competes with, your company’s website. Here are some quick tips for Facebook success:

Link your company’s Facebook page to your website.

Provide contact details and any brick-and-mortar store address(es).

A company logo makes a great addition, as does an easy-to-read URL.

Treat your Facebook fan page as an extension of your company website and leverage the content that’s already there. Share about timely offers, events, new products and other genuinely interesting news.

Be careful not to spam followers with too-frequent or too-lengthy updates.

Maximize the ROI with a Facebook-only voucher or other offers to reward people for following you.

Consider creating a QR code for the Facebook page and leveraging it on business cards, brochures, billboards and other marketing materials. Note: Linking the QR code to a dynamic URL allows it to be customized or changed if you later decide to drive users to the website instead of the Facebook page.

The Zappos fan page on Facebook is another fun example that allows followers to show off their purchases and get friends’ opinions. There’s also a “fan of the week” section where the company asks its more than 230,000 followers to send in pictures of themselves posing with a Zappos box.

Dell, one of the first big companies to embrace social media, continues to build its customer engagement by allowing Facebook fans to ask for advice, get reviews, or get personalized recommendations right from the fan page.

Since its founding in 1989, Walt Denny Inc., a full service public relations and advertising agency, has been The Home Products Agency, working with a national client base and building each organization’s positive brand awareness through bold results and individualized strategies. Client experience includes industry-leading organizations such as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, HomeCrest Cabinetry, Knauf Insulation, The Tapco Group, Johnson Hardware, Amerock, a division of Newell-Rubbermaid and Leaders Bank. Follow us on twitter, @waltdennyinc., join us on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/walt-denny-inc. or like us on www.facebook.com/WaltDennyInc.